Why is one sales rep's email blocked when others aren't?
Summary
What email marketers say12Marketer opinions
Email marketer from NeilPatel.com shares that if one sales rep's IP address has been flagged for spam, even if the others haven't, their emails are more likely to be blocked.
Email marketer from Reddit explains that sender reputation is key. If the one rep's email address or domain has a poor reputation due to previous spam complaints or blacklistings, their emails will be more likely to be blocked.
Email marketer from Woodpecker shares that the main reasons for low deliverability is either technical errors, content or low engagement rates. That one person could have any number of these issues, which is why only they are getting blocked
Email marketer from Folderly shares that one person may not have sufficiently warmed up their email address before beginning bulk sending or cold emails. If one person has not done this and the others have, this would lead to an increase of blocks on only 1 address
Email marketer from Email Geeks explains that the receiver decides what emails they want or don’t depending on content or other (local to them) settings, and there's no “setting” in Gmail which can make 3rd party receivers accept the email.
Email marketer from Gmass shares that deliverability relies on the sender's reputation, the recipients engagement and the content. If one persons content is of a low quality, it could indicate why only they are getting blocked
Email marketer from Email Marketing Forum suggests that the issue may be on the recipient's end. The recipient's email server may have specific rules or filters that are blocking emails from that particular sales rep, even if the other reps' emails are not affected.
Email marketer from Mailjet.com shares that poor list hygiene is a major reason for deliverability problems, and ensuring you are sending to engaged users is key.
Email marketer from Sendinblue.com explains that even if the email is not spammy, some phrases can trigger spam filters. It suggests avoiding 'spammy' keywords and using personalized content.
Email marketer from Email Geeks shares it might be worth seeing if you should give up on the recipient org too- there's a chance your rep has irritated a mail admin that's decided to block you out of irritation (or worse)
Email marketer from Email Geeks explains that a 554 “security error” hints at something within the email being blocked. And the other 550 errors hint at the fact hat the receiver (platform) decided they don’t want email from that specific email address anymore.
Email marketer from Reply.io shares that even if the email is technically correct in terms of IP and reputation, spam filters still need to know if users want to see it. Poor content could be an example of one reason to get blocked.
What the experts say3Expert opinions
Expert from Email Geeks explains that the sender can’t dictate if something is “spammy” or not - only the recipient can make that call. That’s the email client doing its job correctly.
Expert from Spam Resource explains that one potential reason is different sending infrastructures. If the sales reps are using different email clients, ISPs, or SMTP servers, their emails could be treated differently by receiving servers. This is especially true if one rep's setup has a poorer reputation or isn't properly configured.
Expert from Word to the Wise shares that inconsistencies in sending behavior, even within the same organization, can trigger filtering. If one rep's sending volume spikes suddenly, or if they engage in practices like aggressive cold emailing without proper authentication, their messages may be flagged while others are not. They also mention it depends who the email is being sent too, if they are only emailing people who unsubscribed previously, this also causes issues.
What the documentation says4Technical articles
Documentation from Mimecast details that an email may be blocked due to content within the email being blocked because of security policies setup. Also, the email address may have been blocked previously.
Documentation from Microsoft explains that Exchange Online Protection (EOP) uses a variety of techniques to identify and block spam. It may be blocking emails from the one sales rep due to content filters, connection filtering, or spam confidence levels (SCL).
Documentation from RFC Editor provides details on SMTP error codes, specifically 550 errors, which indicate that the recipient's email server has refused to accept the message. This could be due to a variety of reasons, including the sender being blocked, the content being flagged as spam, or the recipient's mailbox being full.
Documentation from Google explains that Gmail has specific guidelines for bulk senders, and failing to comply can lead to emails being blocked or sent to spam. It recommends checking that the sales rep is following these guidelines, including setting up SPF, DKIM, and DMARC authentication.